By Lucky Vince Pienaar
After their three-point victory over Australia, the All Blacks stood around on the field with smiles on their faces, congratulating each other on their victory.
Hopefully, when they got into the change room, coach Scott Robertson would have wiped their smiles right off their faces.
Take nothing away from the Wallabies. Without a doubt this is their best performance since Joe Schmidt took over coaching duties at the Australian national team.
By contrast, the effort of the All Blacks in the second half is possibly one of the worst performances by a New Zealand team ever – certainly since Scott Robertson took over as coach.
At the break, the All Blacks were leading by 14 points, having scored four converted tries and seemed well on their way to scoring a runaway victory. Sure, they had conceded two soft tries, but nothing to worry about.
But then they forgot they had a rugby match to win.
Damian MacKenzie scored a penalty early in the second half and then the All Blacks fell asleep, not scoring for the rest of the match.
The Wallabies, on the other hand, knew they had a job to do. They scored another two tries to go with the two from the first half and came within three points of the biggest upset of The Rugby Championship.
The All Blacks fell into the near fatal trap of defending a lead instead of attacking to score points and it almost cost them the match.
Former Springbok captain John Smit said, the match between the All Blacks and the Wallabies is “like a plate final”, and he is right. These are the two losing teams in The Rugby Championship. While the Wallabies knew they were in a fight, the All Blacks played like losers.
The All Blacks won, but it is a victory to cry for. After this match it is safe to say that the Wallabies are on the way up. It is wrong to say the All Blacks are going backwards. It’s too early for that.
Australia (4 tries) 28-31 (4 tries) New Zealand
Tries Australia: Fraser McReight, Matthew Faessler, Hunter Paisami, Tom Wright
Tries New Zealand: Will Jordan, Rieko Ioane, Caleb Clarke, Ardie Savea
Pictured above: All Blacks scrape home after Wallabies fightback in second half
Source: X
